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Loppet
What is a Loppet?
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On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, shmedlap wrote:
What is a Loppet? "Lopp" (noun) is Swedish for race, run, etc. "et" is the singular, definite suffix == "the" The most famous use is "Vasaloppet" == "the Vasa ski race" In general it means any mass-participant race. -- David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada email: WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/ |
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Thankyou for your reply.
Can a Loppet be any style of cross country ski race? Or does it assume a certain style? "David Dermott" wrote in message ... On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, shmedlap wrote: What is a Loppet? "Lopp" (noun) is Swedish for race, run, etc. "et" is the singular, definite suffix == "the" The most famous use is "Vasaloppet" == "the Vasa ski race" In general it means any mass-participant race. -- David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada email: WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/ |
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#5
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The word is used more narrowly in non-Scandinavian contexts -- like a
foreign technical word. A "loppet" is a long cross-country ski race on groomed trails. The most frequent distance is 50 km / 31 miles. The trails are mostly pretty gentle by backcountry skiing standards, _very_ gentle by ski mountaineering standards. For some examples: http://www.worldloppet.com http://xcskiworld.com/events/ASM/ASM_sitepreview.htm Since the courses are gentle and groomed, most people do them on very light gear, and the more athletic skiers skate most of the way (though some loppets have old-fashioned rules that forbid skating). Despite the relative gentleness, some of the curvy downhill sections can be a bit exciting at on ultra-light skis and high speeds. To further help with going light, there are stations for food and drink about every 10 km. I've found loppets to be a fun and challenging experience, even though I'm mainly a backcountry skier. I do one or two each winter -- especially the Lake Placid Loppet, with its fun and athletically challenging Olympic course (which connects with the best backcountry skiing terrain in New York state). A (non-Scandinavian) loppet is like a running marathon, but on skis. Lots of people ski in a loppet with no thought of trying to win -- just try to finish, and see how their time compares with their buddies or with last year. The winners typically finish 31 miles / 50 km in less than 2.5 hours. Ski races interesting for this newsgroup which are _not_ "loppets": http://www.pierramenta.com http://www.pdg.ch http://www.life-link.com/race.htm Ken |
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[ Ken Roberts ]
A (non-Scandinavian) loppet is like a running marathon, but on skis. Lots of people ski in a loppet with no thought of trying to win -- just try to finish, and see how their time compares with their buddies or with last year. The winners typically finish 31 miles / 50 km in less than 2.5 hours. That's very much like Vasaloppet, Birkebeinerrennet and the other Scandinavian mass ski races. Some of the national elite, and many of those not quite in the World Cup class, do the races as a competition, but most participants only compete against themselves or their buddies. These are done with racing gear on well-groomed tracks. In Birkebeinerrennet you have to have some basic extra gear (or rather a pack of more than a specific weight, I think five kg or something like that); some races in less mountainous terrain doesn't have any gear requirements. There are mountain skiing races, some both up and down mountains, others only down (although you have to walk up to the start), but these are done on randonnee or downhill telemark gear. I'm not aware of any "flat" backcountry races -- that is, no groomed tracks I'm doing Holmenkollmarsjen each year, that's 42 km through the woods North of Oslo, ending at Holmenkollen (Oslo's ski stadium). That's one of the shorter races. I (reasonably fit) beat the winner of the 80+ age class last year, but not by very much. BTW, talking about "a loppet" is very strange to Scandinavian ears. The -et ending signifies definite form ("the" in english, but we put it at the end). The indefinite form is "lop" (generally we don't end words in two of the same letter, so "lop" loses its second p in indefinite form). BTW2: Snow on the gound in the higher parts of Oslo! Not many cm yet, but if the weather stays cold there might soon be enough in the woods to take out the rock skis... Martin -- "An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader." -Paul Graham, On Lisp |
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Ken Roberts wrote:
A (non-Scandinavian) loppet is like a running marathon, but on skis. Lots of people ski in a loppet with no thought of trying to win -- just try to finish, and see how their time compares with their buddies or with last year. The winners typically finish 31 miles / 50 km in less than 2.5 hours. Ski races interesting for this newsgroup which are _not_ "loppets": http://www.pierramenta.com http://www.pdg.ch http://www.life-link.com/race.htm you could add the famous Mezzalama (Monte Rosa, Italy), but all that courses - to me - are'nt really sympathical, because of the obvious doping of many many of the partecipants. More in the spirit of this group, i think, are the Derby della Meije or Galdhoeppigrennet or ... Greetings, Ulrich -- reply to: uhausmannATbluemailDOTch |
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"Martin Thornquist" wrote I'm not aware of any "flat" backcountry races -- that is, no groomed tracks Ski orienteering offers the choice of leaving groomed tracks to take a more direct route. The ski-O maps indicate the groomed tracks and show whether they are groomed for skating. In actuallity, the penalty both in terms of time and of effort involved in breaking trail and the tendancy of all the competitive ski orienteers to use skating skis means that ski-O is actually done entirely on prepared track. Tommy T. |
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[ Tommy T. ]
Ski orienteering offers the choice of leaving groomed tracks to take a more direct route. The ski-O maps indicate the groomed tracks and show whether they are groomed for skating. In actuallity, the penalty both in terms of time and of effort involved in breaking trail and the tendancy of all the competitive ski orienteers to use skating skis means that ski-O is actually done entirely on prepared track. Oh yeah, there's that. Ski orienteering never really caught on over here, though, and there's definitely no mass participant races. Martin -- "An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader." -Paul Graham, On Lisp |
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On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, Martin Thornquist wrote:
Now I'm not Swedish (but Norwegian), but I think it's a pretty general term in Swedish. Mostly used for mass-participant ski races, as David wrote. I'm not sure if it's used for non-ski races of any kind; in its basic form I don't think it has any intrinsic 'ski' meaning. I think there are running (ie foot) races called "lopp(et)" in Sweden, eg - Lidingöloppet - a running race in Stockholm. Swedish athletes also use the word "motions-lopp" lit. "exercise-race". It's a race where there is no ranking of finishing times- everybody competes just to finish. I'm more familiar with it as a cycling term, eg in the 300 km bicycle event "Vätternrundan". But I'm sure I've seen "motionslopp" used for skiing, skating, etc. races. I think Norwegians also use the word "mosjonsløp". -- David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada email: WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/ |
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